Joy L. Woodson, The State (Columbia, South Carolina), March 25, 2008
School choice has been lauded by many South Carolinians as a way to give more children access to exceptional programs and high standards.
But in Kershaw County, a choice program launched nearly 10 years ago has led to a heated debate about racial imbalances—and some perceived inequities—in three Camden area elementary schools. In those schools, attendance is not limited by where a student lives. Parents can choose which school their child attends.
Jackson, Camden and Pine Tree Hill elementary schools are so heavily composed of one race—nearly 80 percent black in one school, 70 percent white in another—that the imbalance has fueled feelings among some in the community of unequal treatment in the roughly 10,000-student district.
{snip}
Although officials plan to redraw attendance lines at all three schools to fix the issue, the boundaries have been tied to a debate about where to put a new Jackson School, a name synonymous with Camden’s first schools for black students.
{snip}
Choice programs, too, are being reviewed.
“The only thing that I will insist on as we look at any other choice programs is equity in access—that’s the right thing to do,” said Superintendent Frank Morgan, who arrived in the district last year. “It should reflect the demographic diversity of the district.”
The goal of choice, launched in 1999, was to create special-themed programs in all three elementary schools to draw children from around Camden and encourage racially balanced enrollments.
But, according to the district, it has had the opposite effect.
Black enrollment has grown to 76 percent from 58 percent at Jackson; and white enrollment rose to 68 percent from 48 percent at Camden and to 60 percent from 44 percent at Pine Tree Hill, according to the district.
{snip}
Recent talk of inequities started a couple of years ago when the district began looking at future building needs.
Pine Tree Hill had a fairly new building, and Camden Elementary was expected to receive nearly $12 million in renovations.
Jackson, too, was slated for upgrades, estimated at $4.5 million.
{snip}
But more money is spent per pupil at Jackson—a school with many economically disadvantaged students—than the other two schools, according to state report cards.
At Jackson, $6,960 was spent per pupil last year; at Camden, $4,623; and at Pine Tree Hill, $6,114. According to those same reports, 66 percent to 77 percent of the teachers in each school hold advanced degrees. Instructional time is also similar.
{snip}
Valerie Tucker, president of Pine Tree Hill’s parent-teacher organization, said she sends her child, who is white, to that school because it’s closest to her job and it’s where her child is most comfortable—not because of race.
“I think people just want their kids to learn and they want them to be successful and have good grades, and wherever that’s happening, that’s where they need to be,” she said.
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on March 25, 2008)
Comments
Sounds like they’ve been programmed to find inequalities everywhere.
Posted by at 6:50 PM on March 25
This article is a good impetus to think through the nature of the Amren “racial realism” argument. Jared Taylor’s overall point of view is a very top-down, philosophical outlook on the difficulty of diversity, and thus, the undesirability of it. Yet, this is a fruitless guiding principle for approaching 90% of the issues that are caused by diversity in the United States. Sure, there is a lot of common ground between nationalists and racial realists on the immigration issue, but with regards to America’s existing black and white population, focusing on the difficulty of diversity is a distraction. Even if you believe that blacks are inherently inferior to whites and asians, as a race, it doesn’t change the fact that improvement in all people redounds to the good of all people in a society. And given that America’s blacks and whites are stuck with each other, about the only worldview that gets us nowhere is the one that questions whether we should be stuck with each other. That’s kicking against the brute facts of the society in which we live. Highlighting the ongoing failures that result from diversity serves to give Taylor good anecdotal and statistical evidence for his natural law point - the difficulty of diversity - but it doesn’t help further the agenda of anyone who wants a better society. Those of you who are racial realists wouldn’t last a week in the public square if you advocated the only concrete steps that would resolve diversity as a “problem”. Thus, all Amren gives you, as it grinds forward, day by day, is more personal epistemological rest in your separatist worldview. What a waste of time. This is much more like feeding a faith than building an argument or a workforce for doing anything. You are armchair racial philosophers, which is about as helpful to society as armchair philanthropy or backseat driving.
Posted by barlow at 6:50 PM on March 25
Valerie Tucker, president of Pine Tree Hill’s parent-teacher organization, said she sends her child, who is white, to that school because it’s closest to her job and it’s where her child is most comfortable—not because of race.
Could it be that the reason her child is most comfortable at this school is because it is majority White.
Posted by Alex at 8:55 PM on March 25
All I have to say on this is: you could spend a million bucks per black student and it wouldn’t do a bit of good….they are NOT in school to really learn, they don’t have to…cause in the real world…everything is just HANDED TO THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK…simple as that!!
Posted by lydia at 9:36 PM on March 25
“Choice” is only legit when the results favor Blacks, or didn’t you know that?
Posted by at 9:44 PM on March 25
Barlow,
Interesting point, but we should be advocating what we really desire rather than what can realistically happen. Jared has the right prescription for our societal ills, and we should work tirelessly to achieve them. I seek an end to this perverse Babel of a city Boston has become, where every possible permutation of every race under the sun comes to quietly tolerate each other on the morning subway commute.
Half-measures usually get you nowhere. And the further race realists like Jared swing the pendulum of the debate, the better for us the middle where it comes to rest.
Posted by Suburban Refugee at 10:37 PM on March 25
So who concluded that what people choose is wrong, just because it is maginally racially lopsided? Why does the government look for problems when there is none, or when one has been partially solved? Let the blacks be with the blacks,so they learn better.
Posted by at 11:09 PM on March 25
“At Jackson, $6,960 was spent per pupil last year; at Camden, $4,623; and at Pine Tree Hill, $6,114.”
Anything over $3,000 per student is wasted — even with white students. Those figures are crazy.
Posted by ben tillman at 11:58 PM on March 25
This is to Barlow and anyone else that is reading or interested in the aims and goals of American Renaissance magazine. This is not an overtly political magazine. American Renaissance magazine is about race differences in many things but there is no uniform way of solving the difficulties that come out of race. American Renaissance magazine serves as a voice for White people who are racially conscious and see the problems of their declining numbers. Many people, including myself, desire that Whites are left to choose to freely associate with anyone they like. Therefore, we don’t want any anti-discrimination laws. The second thing is we want Whites to survive. And, the third thing many of us desire is to have Whites grow as a percentage of the world’s population. I am an anarcho-capitalist/free-market anarchist type of libertarian. That’s what I would recommend to get to the desired aforementioned results. I also believe that is correct from a universal, moral point of view. There are others that believe in a minimal state to secure a homeland. I do believe that is wrong and Whites can have private homeland(s). States have utterly failed Whites over and over again.
Posted by Gaurav Ahuja at 11:05 AM on March 26
The article is misleading. It implies that Kershaw schools are somehow more segregated than those in the rest of the Columbia metro area. This is not the case. In Kershaw, there are no elementary schools that are less than 10% white or less than 10% black. However in Lexington county, there are 8 such schools, and in Richland county, there are 20 such schools.
Posted by at 11:36 AM on March 26
I read these articles about ‘magnet schools’, etc, and the racism or the imbalance, and they never actually explain anything. Just what is being hidden here?
Posted by at 12:07 PM on March 26
There are inequalities in the various schools, to be sure. Just not what the black community and liberals want them to be or think they are.
Posted by at 1:15 PM on March 26
Once again, racist logic fails. An exception does not make the rule. It is well-known that resources-applied-per-student, when all source are taken into account, including off balance sheet contributions from wealthier parents, is very strongly correlated with overall student achievement. There are many other factors as well that qualify the data. of course, agendas are not concerned with those petty little details.
Posted by Black Insurgent at 1:41 PM on March 26
ben tillman at 11:58PM on 03/25,
Here in the idiotic state of NJ, $10,000 a head for the students is the norm. If the school is an ABBOTT (poor/minority) school, it can be as much as $20,000 per “pupil.”
Tom Iron…
Posted by Tom Iron... at 3:04 PM on March 26
What is missing in the article above (and all of the comments about it so far) is the academic PERFORMANCE of students in these schools.
If student performance across these three schools is adequate and comparable to the student’s age group performance statewide,
then these diversity and racial conflicts are irrelevant, since one school is as (relatively) good as another, and it matters not in the least what a particular school’s racial quotas are.
All people involved in this pointless and distracting controversy should get their thoughts back on what is actually important - the quality of the education students receive.
Posted by Gary at 3:44 PM on March 26
from the article - “Although officials plan to redraw attendance lines at all three schools to fix the issue…”
It just blows my mind that these people can’t understand that forced integration is every bit as wrong as forced segregation.
Posted by Robert at 4:24 PM on March 26
Barlow, why do you think the races in america will ALWAYS be kept together? Did you learn nothing from the USSR? Czechoslovakia? Yugoslavia? The arrow of time has been carving up large, diverse empires and replacing them with homogeneous ethnic nation-states, it is bound to happen here too. Yes, separatism is the answer. Yes, separatism will happen. And yes, separatism must always be our goal and nothing short of it will suffice.
Posted by Diamed at 5:38 PM on March 26
“It is well-known that resources-applied-per-student, when all source are taken into account, including off balance sheet contributions from wealthier parents, is very strongly correlated with overall student achievement.”
Sure. Data?
Posted by Cassiodorus at 12:55 AM on March 27
Diamed; I completely agree. One can only imagine the renewal (urban or otherwise)this nation would experience if we could carve a few states out for blacks to destroy-er, I mean govern and have for themselves-and leave the rest for the white majority. But how, realistically, can this be achieved? As much as I would love to see this happen, I cant see how it would come about.
Posted by Evergreen at 3:12 AM on March 27
“But more money is spent per pupil at Jackson—a school with many economically disadvantaged students—than the other two schools, according to state report cards.”
I wonder how much of this per-student cost is for free breakfasts, lunches, etc. ie; all the welfare-type, non-education related costs per student?
Posted by Superman at 10:55 AM on March 27
The same thing is happening in liberal Eugene, Oregon. “Choice” schools have led to segregation. Now, the Ding a Lings the folks put in as Superintendents are calling to destroy everything the parents built for the Holy Grail of Diversity.
Well, I suppose, forced integration has one silver lining: it can be thought of as “Reality therapy” for liberals, the only therapy known to affect the hearbreaking disease of liberalism.
Posted by Jack Hansen at 11:31 AM on March 27
from the article - “Although officials plan to redraw attendance lines at all three schools to fix the issue…”
It’ll fix the issue all right! Watch for a massive exodus of whites to another school district and/or private schools suddenly getting lots of business.
Posted by at 1:45 PM on March 27
“It is well known that resources applied per student…”
—Black Insurgent
“Well known” to whom?
Jspan spends far less per student on public education than we do here in the US, but yet has somehow avoided producing several generations of functional illiterates.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:22 PM on March 27
I can take the “money doesn’t necessarily produce good public education” argument even farther, Black Insurgent, with the old USSR.
The western USSR was ravaged by the Germans during World War Two, and they received no help rebuilding, except for what the Red Army could loot from occupied eastern Europe. After the war, and throughout the cold war, the USSR was an economic basket case that spent everything it could on armaments.
Did this prevent them from giving the population a reasonable education? Not at all! They were the first to orbit an unmanned spacecraft, the first to orbit an animal, and the first to orbit a man around the earth. They were also the first to orbit an unmanned spacecraft around the moon, which is why so many of the major terrain features on the back side of the moon have Russian names.
If anything other than mineral wealth is saving Russia, it is an educated population.
As another example, I started elementary school in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1971. Edinburgh was the capitol, but it was not a wealthy city (I suppose I should just be happy we didn’t live in Glasgow.) We didn’t have a refrigerator; my mother simply stored our perishables in a shady spot in the back yard. The milk and coal were delivered on horse-drawn carts. The carts had steel wheels and rubber tires, but were powered by hay and oats. Meat rationing, in force since the war, I believe ended only in 1966, the year I was born. At school we used chalk and small personal slates, instead of pencils and paper. In spite of this, Scotland had long enjoyed the best reputation for education in Britain.
The common theme here, is that Russians and Scots are white.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 12:31 PM on March 28
